Changing children’s habits and behaviours

If your child is experiencing problems, there are a number of psychological methods that can help them. Personally, I find that Hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) are very often more suited to children. They enjoy using their vivid imaginations, inventing stories and playing visualisation games, much more than some of the conventional ‘talking’ therapies.

Very often, ‘talking’ about a problem can make it seem bigger in a young child’s mind, especially if the conversation is about an incident that happened some time ago – for all we know, we are simply re-kindling the problem and making it bigger.

Hypnotherapy and NLP, on the other hand, require the child to engage in visualisation techniques. This could be to ‘reduce’ the intensity of a problem – or to ‘enhance’ feelings of success.

I always tell children that it’s a bit like having a magic TV control inside your mind – you can play around with it until you’re feeling happy with what you see. Children find this very easy to do, for their imaginations are particularly vivid in childhood – likewise, slipping into trance-like day-dreamy states is something that comes quite naturally to them too.

You see, young children’s minds randomly absorb all sorts of habits and behaviours as they’re growing up – they’re programmed to do this naturally because it’s how they learn about their world and how to behave in it. However, not everything that gets ‘downloaded’ is good for them and they end up acquiring habits and behaviours which do not serve them well. In fact, many adult fears, phobias and habits develop as a result of the experiences encountered during childhood – perhaps you can remember some from your own childhood.

What are Children’s therapy sessions like?

Sessions are relaxed, light-hearted and fun – they can vary in length from one to two hours, depending on the age of your child and the distance you have travelled. Most children simply need one or two sessions to put them on the path to success.

My experience working with Children:

Before becoming a child Hypnotherapist and NLP coach I had many years of experience working with children, and I’m also a mother to three, now grown-up, children.

As a qualified Montessori Teacher, I was Principal of my own school for five years, and also worked at the Anna Freud Centre alongside child psychotherapists as well as studying Developmental Psychology at University College London.

I’m also the author of the best-selling book “Words that Work: How to Get Kids to Do Almost Anything”. Visit my other website www.success-4-kids.com to find out more about this.